Yonatin wrote:yeah haha I'm not having the best of luck with it. You also hit the nail on its head haha. It stands for Utah Power and Light. I was wondering if they were hard to pick also because they were custom to that specific company, and since that company choose that brand if that meant something. I picked my first lock with a safety pin, it was a puny Master lock, I thought I would try my luck with this one. I have the key to both of these particular locks and don't know how to take them apart. Haha yeah they are shiny because I couldn't stand them dirty so I cleaned them up, I have a habit of cleaning random things and making them shiny like so. Thanks for advice I really appreciate it.
On a scale of 1-10 on difficulty of picking what would you rate these ones? Also I have a American Lock Co. Series 700 and it seems to be kicking my donkey as well, I have read threads on this site about that particular one and from what I gathered it isn't the easiest out there. I was wondering what your guy's opinion would be on what lock out there is the most difficult one to pick. I want to get a lock to lock some stuff up that is really safe and hard to get past.
@Yonatin:
Those WB padlocks can be 4, 5 or 6 pins... Utility companies order padlocks from WB because WB will create a bitting for that company only and never repeat it or sell locks keyed to it or keys cut to it to anyone else...
Also until Master's new Edge system came out a couple of years ago it was one of the options for ordering keying systems that included padlocks whose keys could also be used in door hardware in the form of rim and mortise cylinders with the same keyway... Just like systems from Yale, Sargent, Best, Corbin-Russwin, etc...
WB also manufactures some rather specialized OEM padlock solutions for the utility industry like meter socket locks for electric companies and gas meter pin locks for gas companies...
Your locks look nice but I doubt they were ever in service -- they lack the corrosion and staining you would expect to see on a lock that has been outside securing a transformer enclosure, load-break switch, gate or meter for any length of time... Just about every truck in a utility company will have a box of those type of enclosure locks on it because when the key doesn't open the lock it gets cut and whatever work needs to be done gets done and a new lock is left in place of the cut one at the end of the job...
As for the difficulty of picking, that will depend on the individual lock and the bitting rather than the type in a general sense... Even multiple examples of an identically bitted lock will pick differently because of the slight machining differences in the cylinder...
~~ Evan
